The mid-1980s Canucks.
And the 2011 loss to Boston.
He's making a pretty strong case for his third swing at Vancouver.
Drafting was supposed to be his strong suit.
It's becoming pretty apparent he can't draft.
And now he wants to "rebuild" the organization after being in the franchise for four years.
What we don't know is who is driving the bus above him. He may not have a choice.
So this is an editorial without knowing fully what his plans have been and what has been allowed to happen. But if he has been in charge this has been an unmitigated disaster.
His high draft pick Jake Virtanen clearly made the NHL team; he was the best player in the final 20 games of the Canucks season two years ago - then they told his was "TOO BIG AND STRONG" - then he was sent to the AHL the next year and wasn't played worth a damn. And players drafted behind Virtanen are making an impact while Virtanen is slated for another wasted year in the AHL
WHILE TELLING HIM TO LOSE WEIGHT. Virtanen came to camp last year at 235 pounds. Now they're trying to get him under 200 pounds because... why ? He was too strong ? Can't have a big strong guy as a power forward on the team. Benning describes Virtanen as a power forward but they want him to play at less than 200 pounds.
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They traded a natural centre Jared McCann for a guy who was injured when they needed centre ice help.
They muffed the Nikita Tryamkin re-signing and he was the only reason for hope on their prospect list. The coach Benning fired also said Tryamkin was "too big". Are you seeing a pattern here?
The big tough power defensman is too big.
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Last year's high draft pick Olli Juolevi is too small. He's gained some weight and is now too slow.
His last draft pick Elias Petterrson is too small and playing on large ice surfaces gaining no experience whatsoever. Even his own Swedish national team thinks of him as a winger.
Meanwhile draft picks behind Juolevi are making impacts and draft picks behind Petterrson will be in the NHL this year such as Cody Glass. And since Petterrson is 5 years away he'll never catch them in NHL points or impact or experience.
Drafting tall skinny kids seems to be a pattern for this management group. And it's super dangerous because if they gain weight it's at the detriment of their speed. And if they stay too small then they can't play at the NHL level. See Chris Tanev for this example. Tanev can't play 10 games in a row without getting devastated by a hit and put out for 40 games.
Benning signed a petit defenseman last year who was almost killed in front of Vancouver fans.
The Canucks have averaged 400 man games lost per season because he dresses the smallest team in the NHL and then wonders why they're always injured.
And now Benning is talking about revamping the AHL team - after he hired the guy who ran the AHL team.
Let me repeat that - he's revamping the AHL team - after he hired the guy who was running it presumably incorrectly to run his NHL team because he needs to revamp it.
You can't develop kids and earn a spot on the team.
You can't. Because the kids need to play, and play a lot, until they get good at that level.
And so if you park the kids because there's some minor league guy, who will never ever see the NHL but who has mastered the AHL, the kids will never, ever get better.
And if you park the kids at the NHL level and they never play - they'll never ever get better.
The longer this "don't play the kids" mentality sticks around the franchise the more the odds go up on the next Cam Neely trade.
You can not "earn spots" on a roster that don't exist. And kids can't "earn spots" they have to be designated it - just like the Sedins. They didn't "earn a spot". Hell no.
So Juolevi will be sent to big ice in Finland to a beer league. Virtanen, Goldoben, Dahlen, Boeser will be heading to Utica to sit and watch until they "earn a spot". And they won't develop because the AHL team is developing AHL players instead.
So it's a year they didn't draft help, they didn't develop help, and they're going to get trucked at the NHL level because of their lack of size. And you know they'll pick 5th and blow the pick by picking the first 6'3" 150 lb. player they can find.
As for the young veterans at the NHL getting better such as Granlund or Horvat or Baerchi - forget about it. They'll never see the puck.
The defense corp on the Canucks is going to be run by Alex Biega by game 40 because the Top 6 will suffer catastrophic injuries and you know that's coming.
Here's how many games I see their Top 6 playing
Edler - 15 games (probably back)
Tanev - 10 games healthy; 24 games playing injured
Hutton - 55 games - he avoids contact quite nicely
Gudbrannson - 35 games. He's a fighter with a buggered wrist.
Del Zotto - A solid 37 games which is his average.
Alex Biega - 82 games. Let's be honest - he's the only physique capable of NHL games.
Stecher - 62 games. God bless his little heart.
Perhaps it's this last part that is most mystifying to Canucks fans. How can Jim Benning not correlate the massive amount of injuries to the team to his "league is getting smaller and faster"?
Where is this smaller faster league? Is he watching a beer league in Sweden thinking it's the NHL?
And so in the "rebuilding the organization" you can look for Benning to flip another prospect to try to address immediate issues.
And that means Virtanen.
And that's Cam Neely all over again.
Rinse, repeat.
Benning's Third Act
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